You’ve heard this rallying cry from salespeople and sales managers: “It’s time to crush the quota!” It’s a great cheer, but there are still way too many sales organizations that are not even meeting quota, much less crushing it.
So why do so many sales organizations struggle to “crush the quota?”
It’s because there are three other quotas that must be also be managed in order to achieve the sales quota. The fun quota, the learning quota, and the relationship quota.
These other quotas are often forgotten. Usually, because they are not tracked and measured like the sales quota so they only get attention when the sales leader gets around to it.
If you really desire to crush quotas, start tracking and measuring all the quotas.
#1. Fun quota. It’s time to bring back meetings. I’m not talking about the bi-monthly group sales meeting. I’m talking about in-person national sales meetings, quarterly regional sales meetings, or sales kick-off meetings.
Companies that are don’t hold such meetings usually do so because they are looking at an incomplete profit and loss statement.
They aren’t looking at the complete set of numbers associated with in-person meetings.
They look at the cost of food, drinks, transportation, speakers, awards, and time out of the office.
The numbers that don’t appear on the spreadsheet are the return on investment from:
Friendships deepening, which will prevent turnover. Salespeople who can say “I have friends at work” are less likely to leave and will be more apt to give 100% to their work so they don’t let their friends down.
A veteran sharing their wisdom with a newbie, shortening their ramp-up time to success.
A feeling of appreciation and value from the recognition received at the awards dinner.
One of my very smart clients said it best. “If these sales meetings prevent one or two salespeople from leaving the company, this meeting has paid for itself.”
If you want to hit the sales quota, hit the fun quota.
#2. Learning quota. This will sound self-serving with the business that I am in so let’s address that elephant in the room right away.
However, it’s not.
Because, as the late Maya Angelou used to say, “When you know better you do better.” I’d add that when you work at a company that helps you know better, be better, do better, you stay longer.
In a recent survey, Go2Hr shared that that 40 percent of employees who receive poor job training leave their positions within the first year. They cite lack of skills, training, and development as the principal reasons for moving on.
It makes perfect sense. Who feels like showing up to a job every day where they don’t know what the heck they are doing?
A salesperson that has been provided with emotional and consultative sales training skills:
Knows how to sell more effectively and as a result, makes more money.
Has more fun and stays in the profession of sales because they are treated as a trusted partner, not a transactional vendor.
Is less stressed because they don’t live their lives in fight or flight mode.
Enjoys deeper relationships and repeat business.
Sales managers, if you want to hit the sales quota, make sure you are hitting the learning quota.
#3: Relationship quota. As a young, inexperienced sales manager, I stumbled onto doing something right. There were no CRM tools when I started in sales management so I created an excel spreadsheet that listed the members of my sales team. Using this excel spreadsheet, I tracked and measured my outreaches to salespeople. One of the cells on that excel spreadsheet included personal information such as:
Updates on kids.
Update on vacation or hobbies.
And for a few reps, updates on their latest date!
Like a good salesperson, you don’t want every call made to a customer to be around business or asking for more business.
I didn’t want every call I made to a salesperson to be about sales or “crushing the quota.” My goal was to make sure I was connecting on a personal and professional basis each month.
If you want to crush the sales quota, make sure to pay attention to the relationship quota.
Sales quotas are important to manage. Equally important is managing and achieving the fun quota, the learning quota, and the relationship quota. They will help you “crush” your sales quota.
Good Selling!
